


surround me

by crazyache



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:34:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24293689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazyache/pseuds/crazyache
Summary: “I’m not sure you can handle the heat.” Zuko means it most earnestly, but the way it leaves his mouth and lands on Katara seems much more like a challenge than intended.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 240





	surround me

**Author's Note:**

> title from "surround me" by Léon. Z/K oneshot.

“I’m not sure you can handle the heat.” 

Zuko means it most earnestly, but the way it leaves his mouth and lands on Katara seems much more like a challenge than intended. He is waist deep in a spring, steam rising from the water, generated all the way from his core with bending. He had been meditating until a certain waterbender stood at the edge. An orange sunset streaked across the Ember Island sky behind her. 

She pokes the sweltering water with a toe and he raises an eyebrow at her pause. 

That’s all she needs to accept the challenge. “Turn around!” Both of Zuko’s eyes go wide at this command. Katara has a hand on her hip, the other one pointing at him to listen. His mouth opens with an embarrassed and empty silence, but nothing comes out as he turns around. It’s quiet until he hears the sound of water moving, which could only be her body entering the water, lapping at her limbs as she swims closer to him. 

It stops and he can hear himself swallow as he feels her presence directly behind him. He doesn’t have to look to know she is naked. In fact, he could have mistaken her for a firebender the way her back radiated heat, just barely an inch from touching his own. It seems worse, this  _ almost _ touching, as if it could burn his skin, swallow him whole in its fire. 

The silence is broken by the sound of water again. He can guess it is Katara raising and lifting her arms to wash herself. He imagines the water hissing at her skin; the scalding water is nothing if not soothing for him, but for this waterbender, he imagines it must be like melting an iceberg. 

“The fancy tub in my family’s beach house isn’t good enough for you?” He speaks to break the image of the water dancing and drinking in her skin. “They’re nice, but maybe a little too nice for me. I’m more comfortable out here.” Zuko’s head turns to the side, not enough to catch a glance, just to listen closely while he runs fingers through the surface. 

“The real question is why a _ prince _ is out here bathing in the wilderness instead of in the house.” Zuko can feel Katara’s teasing grin, her wild hair fluttering against his back. 

“Well, it’s just not the same without all the servants to fill the tub for me. Unless I could convince Sokka…”

A pleased smile breaks across his face when he hears her laugh. There’s a new noise now, and Zuko can draw the picture in his mind of her fingers bending water aimlessly in front of her. Weren’t they once back to back before? Back in Ba Sing Se--

“Back home in the south pole, we would have to stand naked in the freezing cold and my Gran Gran would dump the boiled water over us. I swear it turned to ice before it hit the ground in the worst winters.” 

Agni, the water must be nearly boiling, the heat slipping in and out of his control. He’s sweating and he knows she must be as well, too stubborn to say anything except endure. He knows she can willingly turn this water to ice at any second, yet she doesn’t. It’s a challenge, isn’t it? He could easily yield. It’s that  _ almost  _ again, almost touching, almost leaning back to see if she’s real, almost unraveling and melting deep into this water, right into her. It has turned the spring into an arduous and tormenting bath. 

Maybe he’s trying to force her out. Maybe it’s not a challenge, but a test. 

“I swam beneath the Northern Water Tribe. I followed the turtle seals through the ice until I found an opening--that’s how I snuck inside. You know, a long time ago.” 

Staring at his palms, he’s not sure where this confession is coming from, but he’s caught up in the moment, flinging himself back to that memory, where he was submerged into a bitter cold so unfamiliar, so piercing, that it brings him across the world to Katara’s memory bathing in the winter. He is nervous when she doesn’t say anything, not even the sound of her movement could fill the space that ached between. 

“The things you did for your honor,” she shakes her head, something like a mixture of being simultaneously impressed and horrified at her lips. 

She has no idea the things he would do. Including resisting every urge to turn around. 

Katara moves forward, back to the earth, and the absence of her near skin nearly wounds him. He waits silently, listening to the water and beads of sweat dripping off, the quick sound of her bending every inch of her skin dry, grass beneath her feet. The unmistakable sound of clothes rustling. 

“Thanks for letting me join,” she looks at him, giving him permission to turn back around. He obliges, slowly, and crosses his arms. 

As she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, he is caught breathless at the sight of her. She is raw, skin singed red, eyes glowing. Zuko’s cheeks have a kiss of pink, and he blames the heat for finally catching up to him (for finally being able to see her). Katara doesn’t leave just yet. 

“I’m surprised you lasted that long in here.” 

What he means to say is, he is surprised she lasted that long in here  _ with him.  _ But that’s in another world, another life. Here, he is speaking to a girl made of ice, eyes so blue they must have been stolen from the glacial ocean. He is surprised she didn’t shy away from the fire, didn’t run away from this feverish spring. He should have been afraid of her hurting her, but he knows, despite his taunts, what she is capable of withstanding. 

Her smile is so small, he nearly misses it. 

“I think...there’s a part of me that has always wanted to be that warm.” 

He tilts his head in careful understanding and regard of her, of her soft words, soaking it in entirely. He is back in the icy tundra. Hasn’t every fight with her felt like this? The clash, the steam, the almosts--begging for her forgiveness was just as dangerous as diving into an ice hole, escaping into a snow storm with the Avatar. And yet he dove, head first, without a question. Katara has always been his indomitable counterpart, the opposite element, the only one who’s made him shiver at her steel. 

He thinks he understands her, that they have both always known this--back in Ba Sing Se. When he turned and she offered. Like an ache that can’t be known, a depth wanting to be found, an indescribable pull to be utterly exposed. 

“Like you’ve always craved it,” he whispers. 

Katara nods, biting her lip. 

“It was nice,” she says before running off. 


End file.
